A while back, my buddies and I at CG Therapeutics applied for one of President Obama’s Economic Stimulus grants to small businesses. Well, by golly, we WON. It seems that the government grant givers managed to see how our cancer vaccine targeting the hormone, hCG, can someday become one of the most important therapeutic tools for people suffering every type of cancer.<\/p>\n
The grant doesn’t amount to a heck of a lot of cash, given how much it takes to run a clinical trial these days, but we’re thrilled just the same. It represents some recognition at high levels of our long struggle to make our treatment available to cancer sufferers worldwide.<\/p>\n
hCG, the pregnancy hormone, is used by cancer cells to convince a person’s body to not reject the growing mass, and to accept and even nourish the mutant cells as they spread. Our vaccine counteracts hCG, shutting off the signal sent out by the cancer cells, isolating them, and helping the body’s white blood cells do their jobs and mop up the tumor before it can grow any more.<\/p>\n
Our product, CG201, showed promise in previous clinical studies where cancer patients lived longer when treated with the vaccine and suffered no significant side effects compared to conventional treatments like radiation and chemotherapy. So, it looks like we’ve got a cancer treatment that works pretty well and does not make patients sick.<\/p>\n
You’d think that would make partners like investment firms and major pharmaceutical companies beat a path to our door, but investments and collaborations have come to us slowly. We’ve had to go it alone basically, and that makes for years of delay and deprivation for us and sadly, for cancer patients as well.<\/p>\n
That’s why it’s heartening to get a nod from the Obama Administration. So if you’re grumbling about too much government spending, then at least know that in this case the economic stimulus is aimed straight at cancer, and we intend to make the investment pay big returns, like an effective new treatment to help find, in Obama’s words, “A cure for cancer in our times.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CG Therapeutics, Tom Hopp’s cancer vaccine company, was just awarded one of President Obama’s Economic Stimulus grants, so don’t think all that government spending is going for nothing. Continue reading